Prof. Dr. Tony Heitkam

© TU Dresden/Kretzschmar

Project Administration

Name

Prof. Dr. Tony Heitkam

main activity at the RWTH Aachen University

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Organization Name

Chair for Plant Cell and Molecular Biology

Chair for Plant Cell and Molecular Biology

Address work

Visitor's address:

Zellescher Weg 20b, Room E35

01062 Dresden

Deutschland

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work Tel.

Further Information

Online presences

• ORCID: 0000-0003-0168-8428
• Publication list: Google Scholar
• Twitter

Current responibilities

RWTH Aachen University (main role):
Prof. Dr. Heitkam leads the Chair of Molecular Botany at the RWTH Aachen University. Link to contact details

TU Dresden (secondary role): 
Administration of third-party funded research projects that are hosted from TU Dresden

Research activities

• Repetitive DNA as raw material for genomic innovation
• Epigenetic variability for the induction of short-term genomic changes
• Polyploidy and its impact on the evolutionary trajectory of plant genomes
• Software for the analysis and visualization of repeat structures

Read more about my research focus.

Funded projects

• Identical genomes but different properties – saffron as a model for epigenetics of quality traits and environmental adaptation (funded by DFG)

• EpicBeet – Stability and heritability of DNA methylation patterns in sugar beet: impact on phenotypic plasticity, influence on TE activity and potential for beet breeding (funding by BMBF)

• LarchForFlexibility – Provision of larch reproductive material with high quality and diversity to increase silvicultural flexibility (funding by BMEL; FNR)

• Cytogenetics of mango germplasm (we are glad to host Dr. Sultana during her research stay that is funded by the Alexander von Humboldt foundation) [finished]
• SINEs4Conifers – Genotypisierung der Fichte für die Qualitätskontrolle und Identitätssicherung von Forstvermehrungsgut (funding by BMEL; FNR) [finished]
• MASEPA – Markergestützte Selektion in der Züchtung von Kartoffeln mit Resistenz gegen Globodera pallida (BMBF; KMU-innovativ) [finished]

Selected publications

(* indicates first, # indicates corresponding author positions)
see complete list

T. Heitkam*#, B. Weber, I. Walter, S. Liedtke, C. Ost, and T. Schmidt (2020): “Satellite DNA landscapes after allotetraploidisation of quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) reveal unique A and B subgenomes”, The Plant Journal, doi: 10.1111/tpj.14705

K. M. Seibt, T. Schmidt, and T. Heitkam# (2020): “The conserved 3’ Angio-domain defines a superfamily of short interspersed nuclear elements (SINEs) in higher plants”, The Plant Journal 101(3), 681-699

© Wiley, New Phytologist

T. Schmidt*, T. Heitkam* (equal contribution), S. Liedtke, V. Schubert, and G. Menzel (2019): “Adding color to a century-old enigma: Multi-color chromosome identification unravels the autotriploid nature of saffron (Crocus sativus) as a hybrid of wild Crocus cartwrightianus cytotypes”, New Phytologist 22 (4), 1965-1980

K. M. Seibt, T. Schmidt, and T. Heitkam# (2018): “FlexiDot: Highly customizable, ambiguity-aware dotplots for visual sequence analyses”, Bioinformatics 34 (20), 3575–3577

T. Heitkam*, S. Petrasch* (equal contribution), F. Zakrzewski, A. Kögler, T. Wenke, S. Wanke, and T. Schmidt (2015): “Next generation sequencing reveals differentially amplified tandem repeats as major genome component of Northern Europe's oldest Camellia japonica”, Chromosome Research 23 (4):791-806

T. Heitkam*, D. Holtgräwe, J. C. Dohm, A. E. Minoche, H. Himmelbauer, B. Weisshaar, and T. Schmidt (2014): “Profiling of extensively diversified plant LINEs reveals distinct plant-specific subclades”, The Plant Journal 79 (3), 385-397